Google Has Shown Another Living-Room Device

Google 's home-entertainment experiments extend beyond the gadget the company announced Wednesday, which turns TV sets into an extra screen for watching Web videos and other content.

The Internet giant in January used the Consumer Electronics Show to privately show off a prototype of a previously unreported set-top box device, similar to existing digital-media hubs sold by companies such as Apple and Roku, said people briefed on the device.

These people said Andy Rubin, a Google executive at the time, led the demonstrations of the set-top box, which was powered by the company’s Android operating software and had as a core feature Google’s video-conference service, Hangouts. The device as demonstrated had a video camera and motion sensor, they said.

A Google spokeswoman declined to comment Thursday.

Google’s unreleased device is another indication that the living room has sparked a land grab by technology and media companies. Players such as Google Amazon.com, Apple and Intel are jockeying with established media companies for ways to meld traditional TV with elements of the Web.

The fight could shape how people watch movies, TV and surf the Web and the fortunes of consumer-electronics makers, the entertainment industry, pay-television companies such as Comcast and the advertising business.

So far, however, technology companies have been longer on vision than on products people have purchased in large numbers. Google has had some notable stumbles so far, including a largely unsuccessful effort launched in 2010 called Google TV and the Nexus Q, a media-streaming device that Google announced a year ago but put on hold.

The Google device Mr. Rubin showed was different than Chromecast, a Web-to-TV connector Google announced Wednesday. The device, about the size of a USB drive, plugs into TV sets and lets people pick YouTube videos or streaming Netflix movies from their phones and laptops and display the images on their TV sets.

The people briefed on Google’s plans said the set-top box Google showed off in January had a broader set of features. One of these people said the device allowed people to stream YouTube videos, watch TV shows or movies from the Google Play digital-programming store, and access Android apps such as videogames or, potentially, digital media services such as Netflix and Pandora.

One of these people said Google had planned to launch the set-top box at Google I/O, the company’s software-developer conference held in May.

It’s unclear whether the device shown in January was scrapped in favor of Chromecast, or if it might eventually move forward in some form.

Google and other technology companies continue to grab for footholds in home television, which still commands the biggest chunk of consumers’ entertainment time. The Wall Street Journal earlier this month reported that Google has approached media companies to discuss a possible Internet-television service similar to cable TV.

Companies vying to play broader roles in Internet-based TV include Microsoft and Sony–in part through their videogame consoles–as well as Apple, Amazon.com and chip maker Intel.

Separately, the day after Chromecast went on sale, Google said it would stop a Netflix service discount that was a highly touted element of Wednesday’s launch. The company had offered three months of free Netflix service for people who bought Chromecast–lowering the effective price of the $35 device to roughly $11. On Thursday, Google said the promotion, which it said was available in limited quantities, is no longer available because of “overwhelming demand” for the Chromecast device.